The Fedora Project strongly [[Objectives|encourages]] using [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html free] and [http://opensource.org/ open source] software. Fedora has [[Packaging/LicensingGuidelines|licensing guidelines]] that enforce the following requirements:

The Fedora Project strongly [[Objectives|encourages]] using [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html free] and [http://opensource.org/ open source] software. Fedora has [[Packaging/LicensingGuidelines|licensing guidelines]] that enforce the following requirements:

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* If it is proprietary, it cannot be included in Fedora. ([[Licensing:Main#Binary_Firmware|Binary firware]] is the only exception to this)

+

* If it is proprietary, it cannot be included in Fedora. ([[Licensing:Main#Binary_Firmware|Binary firmware]] is the only exception to this)

* If it is legally encumbered, it cannot be included in Fedora.

* If it is legally encumbered, it cannot be included in Fedora.

* If it violates United States laws (specifically, Federal or applicable state laws), it cannot be included in Fedora.

* If it violates United States laws (specifically, Federal or applicable state laws), it cannot be included in Fedora.

Revision as of 01:15, 26 April 2012

Fedora users and contributors frequently ask others in the community why certain items are not included in Fedora. This page is meant to provide some explanations for the most frequently requested exclusions.

If it is proprietary, it cannot be included in Fedora. (Binary firmware is the only exception to this)

If it is legally encumbered, it cannot be included in Fedora.

If it violates United States laws (specifically, Federal or applicable state laws), it cannot be included in Fedora.

Third party repositories often have more liberal licensing policies and contain software that has been excluded from the official Fedora software repository for various reasons. The Fedora Project FAQ and the informal one http://fedorafaq.org provide useful answers to commonly asked questions. However, the informal faq site is not affiliated with the Fedora Project. You can use a search engine like Google to look for additional help. The proprietary software and drivers discussed may be available from the respective owners and other vendors. Fedora Project instead highly recommends that you support the right vendors and get hardware that can work with completely free and open source software and not restricted by Software Patents and other legal encumbrances.

MP3 Support

MP3 encoding and decoding support is not included in any Fedora application because MP3 is heavily patented in several regions including the United States. The patent holder is unwilling to give an unrestricted patent grant, as required by the GPL. Other platforms might have paid the royalty and/or included proprietary software. Other Linux distributions not based in a region affected by the patent might ship MP3 decoders/encoders or they might have included proprietary software. However, Fedora cannot and does not include MP3 decoders/encoders in order to serve the goal of providing and supporting only free and open source software that is not restricted by software patents by default.

ATI Catalyst Proprietary Graphics Drivers

The ATI Catalyst graphics drivers are proprietary and many kernel developers consider this driver to violate the GPL license of the kernel. Fedora does not include proprietary software. Fedora does include the free and open source Radeon driver however.

Fedora Suggests: Consider using the free and open source Radeon driver instead.

NDISwrapper network driver

NDISwrapper works by bridging Windows drivers into kernel space; many kernel developers consider this to violate the GPL license of the kernel. Furthermore, NDISwrapper does not work with standard kernel features, such as 4K stacks, and exposes the user to binary-only drivers in kernel space that the user cannot modify or fix. Furthermore, NDISwrapper does not work at all without the Windows drivers, which 1) are not redistributable, and therefore cannot be shipped in Fedora, and 2) are not open source, and therefore will not be shipped in Fedora.

Fedora Suggests: Try using the in-kernel drivers that support many common wireless cards, such as Intel or Broadcom wireless adapters.

Real Media (and Player)

Real Media encoding and decoding support is not included in any Fedora application because it is heavily patented in several regions including the United States. The patent holder is unwilling to give an unrestricted patent grant, as required by the GPL. Other platforms might have paid the royalty, or included proprietary software. Other Linux distributions not based in a region affected by the patent might ship Real Media decoders and encoders. However, Fedora cannot and does not ship Real Media decoders and encoders in order to serve the goal of providing and supporting only free and open source software by default.

DVD Playback

DVD playback (of CSS encrypted DVDs) may be a violation of the United States DMCA , because it may be considered circumventing a copyright protection mechanism. Additionally, MPEG2 is a patented codec, so even DVDs without encryption cannot be played.

Fedora Suggests: Using patent unrestricted formats such as Ogg Theora is highly recommended when encoding videos.

Oracle's Java

Java is now under a free software license but still has some binary encumbrances which are being removed or replaced incrementally. Red Hat worked with Sun to improve free and open source Java. Fedora 9 and above includes OpenJDK with encumbered portions replaced by the IcedTea Project and it is fully TCK compliant. Also Fedora includes and actively develops GCJ which can be used to run many Java programs and supports a different set of features and architectures. See the JavaFAQ for more details.

Adobe/Macromedia Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player is proprietary software. Fedora does not include proprietary software. There are open source alternatives including Swfdec and Gnash; both are available in Fedora's package repositories. If you still need to install Adobe Flash, we have Flash installation instructions.

Moonlight

There are serious concerns about Moonlight, due to Microsoft and Novell's public statements around its inclusion in their "covenant". In addition to that Groklaw has posted a FAQ from Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) on the issues with this patent "covenant". Accordingly, this technology (with, or without codecs), is considered too risky, and is not acceptable for inclusion in Fedora.

TrueCrypt

The TrueCrypt software is under a poor license, which is not only non-free, but has the potential to be actively dangerous to end users or distributors who agree to it, opening them to possible legal action even if they abide by all of the licensing terms, depending on the intent of the upstream copyright holder. Fedora continues to make efforts to try to work with the TrueCrypt upstream to fix all of the issues in their license so that it can be considered Free, but have not yet been successful.

Fedora Suggests: Avoid this software entirely.

tcplay is an independently developed TrueCrypt-compatible program under the BSD license. A tcplay package has been submitted for package review for possible future inclusion in Fedora.